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What happens if a parent dies without a will in Florida
If your parent dies without a will, Florida law decides who gets what. The rules are simpler than most people expect, but they have one deadline and one second-marriage rule that catch families. Plain answers for Citrus, Hernando, and Pasco County.
Dying without a will is called dying intestate. It doesn't mean the state takes everything. It means Florida has a set list of who inherits, and that list is used instead of the will your parent didn't write. The list is fair for most families and wrong for some, and you can't tell which until you read it.
Every answer was checked against Florida law. None of it is a recommendation for your own situation. Last reviewed: September 13, 2026.
The short version:
- Does everything go through the no-will rules? No. Check the deed and the accounts first. A house owned jointly, an account with a beneficiary, and life insurance all pass to the named person automatically. No will is involved either way, and none of it goes through probate.
- Who gets everything if there's no will in Florida? Florida has a list, and it starts with the spouse and children. If your parent leaves a spouse and all the children are theirs together, the spouse gets everything. If either of them has a child from another relationship, the spouse gets half.
- Who gets the house if a parent dies without a will in Florida? The family home has its own rules that override even a will. A surviving spouse gets the right to live there for life, or can choose half outright instead. That choice has a six-month deadline.
- Is a handwritten will valid in Florida? Only if two witnesses signed it. Florida doesn't accept unwitnessed handwritten wills, and it doesn't accept spoken ones.
- Do we still have to go through probate? For whatever was in your parent's name alone, yes. Smaller estates, $150,000 or less after subtracting the protected home, can use a faster track.
What passes without a will at all
Does everything go through the no-will rules?
No. A lot of what your parent owned already has a built-in way to pass to someone, and those rules don't apply to it:
- a house owned jointly with a right of survivorship, including a home a married couple owned together, goes to the surviving owner
- a house with a lady bird deed goes to the person named on the deed
- bank and investment accounts with a joint owner or a named beneficiary go to that person
- life insurance and retirement accounts go to whoever is named as the beneficiary
Only what's left, owned in your parent's name alone with nobody named, follows Florida's no-will list. For a married couple who owned everything together, that can be very little. For a widow or widower who owned everything alone, it can be everything. Our page on legal questions covers joint ownership and beneficiaries in more detail.
Who inherits
Who gets everything if there's no will in Florida?
Florida's list starts with the spouse and children. What the spouse gets depends on whose children they are. "Shared" below means a child of both your parent and the surviving spouse:
| Your parent's situation | Spouse gets | Children get |
|---|---|---|
| Spouse, no children or grandchildren | Everything | — |
| Spouse, and every child is shared. Neither of them has a child from anyone else. | Everything | Nothing from your parent's estate |
| Spouse, and your parent has a child from an earlier marriage or relationship | Half | All of your parent's children split the other half |
| Spouse, every child of your parent is shared, but the spouse has a child from an earlier marriage or relationship | Half | Your parent's children split the other half |
| No spouse | — | Everything, split equally. A child who died first is replaced by that child's own children. |
My parent remarried. Does the new spouse get everything?
Only if every child is shared and neither of them has a child from anyone else. Any child from outside the marriage, on either side, cuts the spouse's share to half.
The first case is the one people expect. Your father remarried, and you and your sister are from his first marriage. His second wife gets half of what was in his name alone. You and your sister split the other half.
The second case surprises people. Your mother and her second husband had two children together, and he also has a son from his first marriage. Your mother's two children are the only children she has, and they're his too. He still gets only half. Her two children split the other half. Florida wrote it that way because if he got everything, it would later pass under his own estate, and his son from the first marriage would share in it. The half that goes to her children stays with her children.
What if there's no spouse and no children?
Florida keeps going down the family tree. Find the first row where someone is alive. That row gets everything, and the rows below it get nothing.
| Who is alive | Who gets the estate |
|---|---|
| Grandchildren or great-grandchildren, from a child who died before your parent | They split the share their late parent would have gotten |
| Your parent's mother or father | Both equally, or all of it to the one still living |
| Your parent's brothers and sisters | Split equally. A sibling who died first is replaced by that sibling's children. |
| Your parent's grandparents | Half to the father's side, half to the mother's side. If a side has no grandparents left, it goes to that side's aunts and uncles, or their children. If one whole side has nobody, the other side gets all of it. |
| Relatives of your parent's late husband or wife | Only if your parent was widowed and has no living blood relatives at all. The late spouse's family inherits in this same order, as if the late spouse had died last. |
| Nobody | The State of Florida |
Two rules apply at every row. A half-sibling, meaning a brother or sister who shares only one parent with your parent, inherits half as much as a full sibling, unless everyone in that row is a half-sibling, in which case they share equally. And an adopted child counts the same as a child born to the family: they inherit from the adoptive parents and those parents' relatives, and they no longer inherit from their birth parents. The exception is a stepparent adoption, which doesn't cut the child off from the birth parent the stepparent is married to, or from the family of a birth parent who has died.
The house
Who gets the house if a parent dies without a will in Florida?
Start with the deed, because the deed decides whether the no-will rules touch the house at all. Then, if the house was in your parent's name alone, Florida's family-home rules take over, and they're stronger than the rules for everything else. They apply even when there is a will.
| How the house was owned, and who survives | Who gets the house |
|---|---|
| Jointly with the spouse, or with anyone else, with a right of survivorship | The surviving owner, automatically, the moment your parent died. No probate, no will needed. |
| Your parent's name alone, with a lady bird deed | The person named on the deed, automatically |
| Your parent's name alone. Leaves a spouse and children (or grandchildren) | The spouse gets the right to live there for life. The children own it after the spouse dies. Within six months, the spouse can choose half outright instead, with the children owning the other half. See the next question. |
| Your parent's name alone. Leaves a spouse, no children or grandchildren | The spouse, outright |
| Your parent's name alone. No spouse, leaves children | The children, equally. A child who died first is replaced by that child's own children. |
| Your parent's name alone. No spouse, no children | Follows the family-tree table above |
In the spouse-and-children row, "the right to live there for life" means what it says. The spouse can live in the house until they die. They can't sell it outright, and the children can't move in or sell it, until the spouse dies or gives up the right.
What is the six-month deadline on the house?
The surviving spouse can choose a different deal instead of the lifetime right to live there. They can take half the house outright, with the children owning the other half as co-owners. That's better for a spouse who wants to sell and move.
The choice has to be made within six months of the death. Florida law says the deadline can't be extended, and once the choice is made it can't be undone.
A surviving spouse who doesn't know about the deadline loses the choice. If you're the surviving spouse, or you're helping one, that six-month date is the one to keep track of.
Does a will change who gets the house?
Not if your parent left a spouse or a child under 18. Florida's constitution says a married person can't leave the family home to anyone but their spouse, and a parent with a minor child can't leave it away from that child at all. A will that tries either one fails on that point, and the house passes the way it would without a will.
Our lady bird deed page covers the same rule from the other direction, because it's the most common way those deeds fail too.
Wills that don't count
Is a handwritten will valid in Florida?
Only if two witnesses signed it, the same as a typed will. A handwritten will with no witnesses fails completely, even if it's clearly in your parent's handwriting and clearly says what they wanted. Florida treats it as if there were no will at all.
Florida doesn't accept spoken wills either, no matter who heard them.
My parent signed a will in another state before moving to Florida. Does it still count?
Usually, yes. Florida law says a will signed by someone who wasn't a Florida resident at the time is valid here if it was valid under the law of the state or country where it was signed. So a will done properly in Ohio or New York before the move to Citrus County still works after it.
The two exceptions are handwritten wills with no witnesses and spoken wills. Some states accept those. Florida won't, even if the will was valid where it was written. If that's the will your parent left, Florida treats it as no will at all, and this page applies.
Even a valid out-of-state will is worth having a Florida lawyer read. The people it names as executor may not qualify to serve here, and a will written before the move usually says nothing about Florida's homestead rules for the house.
What happens next
Do we still have to go through probate?
For whatever was in your parent's name alone with nobody named, yes. Probate is the court process that settles what a person owned when they died and hands it to the people entitled to it. Without a will, the court uses Florida's list instead.
Florida has a faster track called summary administration. As of 2026 you can use it when the estate is worth $150,000 or less, after subtracting the protected home, or when the person has been dead more than two years. That number was $75,000 through 2025, and older articles still say so.
Since the protected home doesn't count toward the total, an estate can qualify even when the house is worth more than $150,000. Our page on settling a home after a death covers the first steps and when to bring in a probate lawyer.
Who's in charge of the estate when there's no will?
The court appoints someone, called the personal representative. That's Florida's name for an executor. With a will, it's whoever the will names. Without one, Florida law sets the order: first the surviving spouse, then whoever the heirs holding the majority of the estate agree on, then the closest relative. If two relatives are equally close and can't agree, the judge picks the one who seems best able to do the job.
Whoever it is has to qualify. Florida won't appoint anyone under 18, anyone convicted of a felony or of abusing, neglecting, or exploiting an elderly or disabled adult, or anyone who is mentally or physically unable to do the job. Someone who lives outside Florida can serve only if they're a close relative, such as a child, parent, sibling, or spouse's relative.
Can this all be avoided?
Most of it, for a few hundred dollars. A will done with a lawyer settles everything on this page except the house rules, which apply regardless. Joint ownership and named beneficiaries on accounts keep those out of probate entirely. A lady bird deed does the same for the house.
The people who end up on this page are usually the ones whose parent meant to get around to it. Our page on the legal papers every senior should have is the place to start.
Free help in Citrus, Hernando and Pasco County
Who can I talk to about this for free?
Florida Senior Legal Helpline: free legal advice by phone for Florida residents 60 and older, in all three counties. Probate and inheritance questions are within what they cover.
1-888-895-7873
Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There are income limits, but they don't count your savings.
| County | Legal aid office | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Citrus | Community Legal Services | 1-800-405-1417 |
| Hernando | Community Legal Services | 1-800-405-1417 |
| Pasco | Bay Area Legal Services | 1-813-232-1343 |
Also worth reading
- Settling a home after a death in Florida: the first practical steps, probate basics, and when to get a lawyer
- Legal questions Florida families ask about an aging parent: power of attorney, lady bird deeds, probate and guardianship in one place
- Lady bird deeds in Florida: passing the house without probate, and when it fails
- The legal papers every senior should have: the living will, health care surrogate, and durable power of attorney
Sources
- Florida Statutes section 732.102, the spouse's share when there is no will; 732.103, the order of heirs; 732.104, how a deceased heir's share passes to their descendants; 732.105, half-blood relatives; 732.107, escheat to the state; 732.108, adopted children
- Florida Statutes section 732.401, the surviving spouse's rights in the homestead and the six-month election
- Florida Statutes section 732.502, requirements for a valid will, including two witnesses and wills signed in another state
- Florida Statutes sections 733.301, 733.303 and 733.304, who is appointed personal representative and who qualifies
- Florida Statutes section 735.201, summary administration, amended by chapter 2026-57
- Florida Statutes section 689.15, right of survivorship in jointly held property
- Florida Constitution, Article X, Section 4(c), restrictions on leaving the homestead when survived by a spouse or minor child
- Florida Department of Elder Affairs, Senior Legal Helpline